~ issues of relevance to Waikanae people

for some light relief: Gareth Morgan’s Opportunities Party

Best known as a the father of Sam, a co-founder of TradeMe who did better than any lottery winner a decade ago when Fairfax bought it for $700 million, former economist Gareth Morgan is clearly someone with too much time and money on his hands.

His decision to go into politics with his own party was announced two weeks ago — complete with a logo, the Red Peak design from last year’s flag referendum (with the colours repositioned), but without any policies.

The Opportunities Party sounds rather like what a group of investors or developers would call themselves, but Gareth Morgan says he is concerned about inequality and poverty — is that not what one or more existing political parties say, too? But his logo has both red and blue in it. Hmm.

To date Gareth Morgan has only managed to raise the ire of cat lovers by wanting cat curfews and reduced numbers of them. With 47% of households having a cat according to the last census, that wouldn’t seem the best basis for trying to get votes from people. Ho hum.